OK, so here's your reading, barefoot life. I'm more than a little rusty, since I have not really read cards for months on end, so I decided to go with my trusty Enchanted Map oracle. Let's find some appropriate
music.
I have not talked to you much in the forums, so I don't know much about you, and I'm purposefully not looking at your profile, so this reading will come a bit from the void. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. We'll see.
The Secret Agent Spread (4) by Glass Owl
1. My Cover
What persona or mask am I wearing around others? ---
49 - Talisman
These phrases jump at me from the book: "Now you're at a place where you know the right things to do and the best choices to make. You really can't commit a mistake." The image shows a person looking at a winding road from a position of advantage. She is draped in a beautiful, gauzy green robe, and a translucent dragon-like creature is perched on her right arm. It is not clear whether that creature is part of her robe, but it looks like it, so that could mean that she is surrounded by its protection. A sort of luminous pendulum (the talisman? or is the dragon the talisman?) hangs from her right hand. Her right foot is stepping on a yin yang symbol; it is as if she moves in a Feng Shui manner, taking only the right steps.
Now this as your mask or persona makes me think that either you like people to see you as a self-assured, confident, supremely competent person, or it so happens that people perceive you that way, no matter what you think of yourself. You project an aura of confidence and calm, and you seem to know exactly where you are going. I wouldn't be surprised if your rising sign is a Fire sing, Leo in particular. (Though the green robe would suggest a water sign. I don't know of any water sign that could make you look this leader-like. Maybe Scorpio?)
One way or another, this is the image you project, maybe without quite knowing it, or maybe very much on purpose. A mask is mask is a mask, no matter why it's there. Again, I know nothing about you, but knowing a little about masks, I would say that perhaps you are a person who has suffered much, and that you have achieved what you have achieved the hard way, always. Thus the ease with which you seem to move both in your personal and your professional life stems from long years of hard work and sacrifice.
2. Compromised
What removes the mask or "blows my cover?" ---
4 - Spirit of Place
A beautiful fairy face merges from, or fuses with, trees, leaves, and butterflies. It's the soul of the place. The book says: "Authenticity is the essence of power." This also pops up: "Is your question about a struggle? The answer is to relax and let go of your need to control the situation."
I feel that, confronted with people who are authentic, who are themselves, you allow yourself to take your mask off and relax, and show your insecurities and your inner struggle. This is not something that happens to you, more something that you allow to happen. When you feel amongst friends, people who love and cherish you, and who show you their true authentic selves, you show them what you think of as "the true you." Maybe you think of yourself as ineffectual, or weak, or you are full of doubts; one way or the other, you reveal all of this to those close to you. (Whether
they think of you as weak or ineffectual is another matter entirely.)
The important thing is that you show all this (what you think of as "the true you" only to those you trust.
3. On The Run
What drives me to keep going or helps me during times of crisis? ---
1 Bone Collector Rx
The Bone Collector is an elderly, somewhat grandmotherly presence. Skulls and bones hang from the trees around her. Within her magic circle there are some sundry, apparently unrelated things: a clock face, a rabbit, and an object that I cannot make out, some kind of drum maybe. She smiles affectionately, though there is a touch of irony in her kind face, and is surrounded by a halo of beautiful, unreadable golden characters.
The book says about this card in the reversed position: "The Bone Collector is here to challenge you to see yourself as a whole being and not one who is perpetually trying to heal an old wound. You'll repeat the past if you don't reclaim the things you believe were lost."
Now, the Bone Collector in this position seems to insist that you have been deeply hurt in the past, and that this hurt is the driving force in your life. One can think of worse motivations, really. But the Bone Collector wants to remind you that maybe it is time that, instead of trying to move away from that hurt or trying to heal it, you embrace it and make your peace with it.
That is truly a hard thing to ask anyone. It would be very hard for me to do something like that --though in a way I am trying to do it in my own life. But that's what I see in the cards, so I'm conveying it.
4. Changing Identities
Who am I really? ---
38 Heal the "Ouch"
"Forgiveness is the healer of the soul," says the book here. The card shows a raccoon wearing a Red Cross hat, bringing a flower to a fox that smell to have an ice bag on her head. It is an open field, but there are tall candlesticks all around them, which gives the scene somewhat of a church feel.
Also from the book: "The
Heal the Ouch card may also be an indicator of old wounds and broken bonds being mended. Reconciliations are possible now. Let bygones be bygones." This sort of gels with the previous card.
More essentially, it seems to tell me that your greatest pleasure in life is to heal and nurture others. Perhaps it has to do with your profession, or being a parent, or simply as a friend who likes to nurture and help others. Maybe people think you arrogant because of your "Talisman" mask, but in reality you are modest and all you want is to help. This card has a sort of Empress feel to it. Like the Empress, it has to do with Nature, and it also talks about nurturing and mothering and giving to others, selflessly and abundantly, but without loss. A sort of serene flow of love and acceptance and healing. It is a beautiful thing to be inside. A beautiful true face.
On this note, my reading is at an end. I do hope it resonates somehow. I will post a picture of the cards. In my experience, even if the reader's interpretation of the cards does not resonate with you, you will find in the cards what the reading lacks. Be well.
